The Relation Between the Locus of Control, Coping and Attitudes Toward Seeking Psychological Help in University Students

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati odnos lokusa kontrole, strategija suočavanja sa stresom i stavova prema traženju stručne psihološke pomoći kod studenata, te istražiti moderatorsku ulogu spola. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 494 sudionika sa raznih sveučilišta u Republici Hrvatskoj. Sudionici su ispunjavali Upitnik stavova o traženju stručne psihološke pomoći; ATSPPH-SF (Fisher i Farina, 1995), Upitnik suočavanja sa stresnim situacijama; CISS (Endler i Parker, 1990; prema Sorić i Proroković, 2002) te Skalu eksternalnosti (Bezinović, 1990). Rezultati pokazuju da viša eksternalnost i više korištenja distrakcije pri suočavanju sa stresom predviđaju negativnije stavove prema traženju stručne psihološke pomoći, dok više korištenja socijalne diverzije pri suočavanju sa stresom predviđa pozitivnije stavove prema traženju stručne psihološke pomoći. Nadalje, dobiveno je da niža eksternalnost i viša razina socijalne diverzije predviđaju pozitivnije stavove prema traženju stručne psihološke pomoći kod studentica, dok se kod studenata niti jedan prediktor nije pokazao statistički značajnim u objašnjavanju stavova prema traženju stručne psihološke pomoći.The aim of this research was to examine the relation between locus of control, coping strategies and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help among students, and to explore the moderating role of gender. A total of 494 participants from various universities in the Republic of Croatia took part in the research. The participants completed The Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Short Form; ATSPPH-SF (Fisher and Farina, 1995), Coping Inventory for Stressful situations; CISS (Endler and Parker, 1990; according to Sorić and Proroković, 2002) and The Externality scale (Bezinović. 1990). The results show that higher externality and more use of distraction in coping with stress predict more negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, while more use of social diversion in coping with stress predict more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Furthermore, lower externality and higher levels of social diversion were found to predict more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among female students, while among male students, no predictor was found to be statistically significant in explaining attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help